Zuckerberg to host live chat with ISS astronauts

The Facebook CEO has a clear vision for Facebook: he wants it to be everywhere and for everyone. And frankly, Mark seems to be trying hard to embody what he wants his creation to be, and pulling it off rather well too. From finding time to change his daughter’s diapers, to landing in a remote Indian village to interact with the local kids, to taking a morning jog in China, to the customary hobnobbing with bigwigs in industry and politics, and hosting regular public Q&As, the working dad is doing it all.

But the man doesn’t seem to be satisfied restricting his reach to the terra firma and its denizens. Come this wednesday the 1st of June, he will host a live chat session with the astronauts orbiting the earth above our heads, aboard the International Space Station. The live event is part of a collaboration between Facebook and NASA and will be available live to the public on the NASA Facebook page.

Intriguingly, this is not going to be a run-of-the-mill conversation between the Facebook CEO and the guys in space. NASA has thrown an invitation to the public to send any question they have for the astronauts. Zuckerberg will relay these questions to the astronauts as part of the interaction. NASA has already set the ball rolling with a few sample questions on their page, setting the tone for the kind of questions viewers might want to ask the astronauts.

Of course, the Space Agency and their astronauts are no strangers to social media exposure. Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield became an internet celebrity with his stirring cover of David Bowie’s Space Oddity, posted on YouTube during his stay onboard the ISS in 2013. Scott Kelly, the American astronaut became a twitter celebrity during his year-long stint at the ISS thanks to the stunning images and regular accounts of life in space that he shared on social media.

This Wednesday’s 20-minute long interaction will involve NASA astronauts Jeff Williams and Tim Kopra and their colleague Tim Peake from the European Space Agency (ESA). The trio will chat with Zuckerberg from the ISS and will answer questions of Facebook users relayed by Zuckerberg. The event, which promises to give a high-profile boost to the exciting Facebook Live Events feature, is scheduled to be held on June 1st 2016 at 12:55pm ET/11:55am CT/10:55am MT/09:55am PT/16:55 UTC.

If you have any query for the ISS astronauts, feel free to head to the NASA Facebook page to post them. And to join Mark Zuckerberg and the astronauts live on Wednesday, don’t forget to send an RSVP to the event from your Facebook account.